The missing 30 minutes of Dark Knight Rises

Shane McGlaun, 6th September 2012

Of all the Batman films I've seen, The Dark Knight Rises was easily my favorite. I especially enjoyed seeing the physical toll that being the caped crusader had taken on Bruce Wayne. I also really liked the portrayal of Bane as a villain, though I definitely could have done without the silly over-the-top accent.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Bane with his own spinoff so we can better understand the history of the character, namely his evolution into the villain.

Although I doubt we will ever get to see a Bane spinoff movie, a new rumor claims the Blu-ray (director's cut) version of Dark Knight Rises will feature an extra 30 minutes of footage, some of which apparenly explores Bane's origins, along with more screen time for Al Ghul.

One hint that there may indeed be some deleted footage out there actually originated with the film's costume designer Lindy Hemming, who recently mentioned a Bane flashback scene she mistakenly assumed had made the final cut.

"The thing that you should have seen during that sequence is [Bane] being injured in his youth. So one of the fundamental things about his costume is that he has this scar from the back injury. Even if he hasn’t got the bulletproof vest on, he still has to wear the waist belt and the braces," said Hemming.

"In that scene in the prison, where he’s learning to fight the same way Batman learned to fight, he’s wearing an early version of his waist belt. It’s showing support, but it’s not the finished one he eventually wears. He’s also wearing an early version of his gas mask, all glued together… If you look at the film, unless they’ve cut it—and I’m sure they haven’t—there’s a whole early section for Tom Hardy where he’s fighting and being taunted by people. He’s got chains on him, and he’s standing on a wooden thing while people are attacking him. And in that scene, he’s wearing a much more ragged, primitive version of the mask.”

Plus, Christopher Nolan is a huge fan of IMAX, and a 165-minute long film is very near the limit of what can physically fit on a 70 mm IMAX print. If the film ran over the time limit, Nolan would've had to cut scenes even if they were key to the storyline to support the IMAX release. Personally, I hope this rumor turns out to be true.